Breaking News
by badly-knitted
Summary: Dee's day off takes a turn for the worse when he watches the evening news. An angsty fic with a happy ending. Set after Vol. 7 and written for fic promptly.


**Title:** Breaking News

 **Author:** badly-knitted

 **Characters:** Dee, Ryo, Drake, OCs.

 **Rating:** PG

 **Setting:** After Vol. 7

 **Summary:** Dee's day off takes a turn for the worse when he watches the evening news.

 **Word Count:** 1000

 **Written For:** My own prompt 'FAKE, Dee/Ryo, The evening news,' at fic_promptly.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.

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It was Dee's day off and after running some essential errands in the morning, such as paying bills and picking up groceries, he'd spent the rest of the day

slobbing about in his apartment, watching TV and generally unwinding.

He knew he probably should have been cleaning and doing laundry, but his shoulder was still sore where he'd twisted it earlier in the week during an arrest, and just lugging the groceries up four flights of stairs had left it throbbing badly enough that he'd had to resort to the strong painkillers he'd been prescribed. He didn't like taking them because they made him so sleepy.

Another thing Dee didn't like was having the day off when Ryo had to be at work, or vice versa. Some weeks their days off coincided, some weeks they didn't, and Dee had never managed to figure out how the Chief's weird work schedule for the Serious Crimes Unit worked. It didn't seem to make any kind of logical sense.

His doorbell rang and he hauled his ass off the sofa to answer it. As he'd expected, it was his dinner, and after paying the pizza delivery guy, he returned to the sofa, picking up the TV remote in one hand to channel surf while he ate. He paused on a channel showing the local evening news, figuring he might as well see what was happening around the city.

There was the usual stuff; politics, entertainment, cute animal story, sports news, and then right in the middle of a story about a woman suing a cab company for ruining her designer coat when it got caught in the door of one of their cabs, the news anchor broke in to announce a serious accident downtown. According to witnesses, a police officer had been chasing a suspect up the fire escape of an abandoned building when the rusted metal ladder had broken away from the wall. The cop was believed to have fallen to his death.

Dee froze, pizza slice halfway to his mouth, appetite suddenly gone. What camera footage there was, taken by someone on their phone and presumably of the beginning of the chase, clearly showed a skinny, shabbily dressed young punk dodging through traffic, with the familiar figures of Ryo and Drake in hot pursuit. Ryo, fitter and faster, was in the lead, Drake trailing by a good ten metres.

With nerveless fingers, Dee fumbled for his phone, automatically punching in Ryo's number.

'The phone you are calling is turned off or out of range,' an emotionless recorded voice told him. Ending the call, he dialled the precinct instead, and Ted picked up.

"Ted, I just saw on the evening news… I need to know…"

"No one knows what's goin' on, Dee; the Chief's tryin' to find out. It's all over the news. Look, hang up and I'll call ya back as soon as I know anything. Okay?"

"Yeah, thanks Ted."

Hanging up, Dee put his phone beside him on the sofa and closed his eyes. This couldn't be happening. Maybe he'd dozed off because of those damned painkillers and he was just having a bad dream. Time dragged on with painful slowness. Ten minutes, twenty, thirty, and still his phone remained silent. Forty minutes. He slumped forward, head in hands, only to jerk upright and grab for his phone as it finally started to ring. He didn't bother checking caller ID.

"Ted?"

"No, why would Ted be calling you?" Hearing the familiar voice of his partner, Dee could scarcely believe his ears. Was he dreaming before, or was this the dream?

"Ryo? Is that you?"

"Of course it's me. I wanted to call you before you saw the news."

Dee's laugh was more than a little shaky. "It's a bit late for that, I already saw it. Are you okay? What happened?" A thought suddenly struck him. "Is Drake okay?"

"Drake's fine. When the suspect headed up the fire escape, I followed him while Drake went inside the building and up the stairs to cut him off from the inside."

"On the news, they said someone fell when the fire escape collapsed…"

"Not as far as I know. The guy I was chasing had a good head start; he was about three floors above me and he kept throwing things down at me, then when he reached the roof he kicked the ladder loose from the wall. The thing was so rusted it didn't take much. As soon as I felt it start to shake, I dived through the nearest window."

"So you're really alright?"

"Sore ribs and a bump on the head, but aside from that, I'm fine. I just landed badly and knocked myself out, because whoever used to live there left their piano right in front of the window. Drake got the suspect and hauled him back down the stairs. Apparently when no one could find my body in the wreckage he went looking for me, but by then I was already on my way down the stairs."

"Where are you now?"

"Sitting in the back of an ambulance outside the building. The paramedics want to take me to the hospital to get checked over. I keep telling everyone it's not necessary, I'm fine, but the Chief's here so I don't think I get a choice."

"Good. I'll meet you there."

"Dee, you don't have to…"

"Yes I do. You'll need a ride home after, and anyway, I'm not gonna believe you're okay until I see for myself. Now quit arguin' with everyone and do as you're told; I'll see you in a bit."

"Okay, thanks Dee." After Ryo hung up, Dee grabbed his jacket, shoved his feet into sneakers, picked up phone and keys, and headed for the door. So often in his working career he'd questioned members of the public on what they'd seen, often getting wildly inaccurate statements; never had he been so glad to learn that the witnesses had got their facts completely wrong.

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The End


End file.
